1885 | Sudan

On March 3, 770 troops from colonial NSW sail for the Sudan to help suppress a rebellion against the British-backed Egyptian Government.
Australia suffers its first military loss on May 6 during a reconnaissance mission, but of the nine deaths before the end of the campaign all fall to disease rather than enemy action.
Pictures: Departure of the New South Wales contingent, March 1885 (AWM A05215) | Troops of the New South Wales contingent in the desert (AWM A04402)

1899 - 1902 | Boer War

Australian colonial troops arrive in South Africa in December 1899 to support Britain against rival Dutch Afrikaner settlers known as Boers.
16,175 Australians serve in the conflict, mainly as mounted troops as the fighting degenerates into guerrilla warfare.
251 are killed in action or die from wounds sustained in battle and 267 die from disease – mainly typhoid. Another 43 men are reported missing.
Picture: Infantry from Victoria stand at attention near their piled rifles, by Underwood and Underwood, 1900 (AWM P00295.182) | 2nd New South Wales Mounted Rifles crossing the Orange River (AWM A04337)

1900-1901 | Boxer rebellion

Australian colonies send naval forces to support Britain in China against a militant group known as the Boxers.
Men from the Victorian and New South Wales navies, as well as the South Australian ship Protector, join forces from eight nations to help restore civil order in the crisis.
Six Australians die of sickness and injury but none from enemy action.
Pictures: The ruins of the French Quarter in Peking (AWM P00417.014) | Mounted patrol setting out after bandits (AWM A05050)

August 1914 | World War I

After Germany invades France and neutral Belgium, Britain and Germany go to war in August 1914, and Australia pledges full support.
From a population of fewer than five million about 417,000 men enlist in the conflict. The first contingent of 20,000 are initially sent to Egypt to prepare for the fight ahead.
The Great War remains Australia’s most costly in human sacrifice with about 60,000 killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner.
Picture: The 9th and 10th Battalions in Egypt with the regimental mascot. E. N. Merrington, December 1914 (AWM C02588)

April 25th 1915 | Gallipoli

The Anzac legend is born at Gallipoli where the forces of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps land near Gaba Tepe to establish a tenuous foothold on the steep slopes above the beach.
After months of fierce fighting and heavy casualties on both sides, a stalemate forces a successful evacuation in December.
Picture: Watson's Pier at Anzac Cove, 1915 (AWM C03391)

1916 - 1917 | The Western Front

Australian forces are sent to the battlefields of France in March 1916, where trench warfare stretches across Belgium and northern France from the English Channel to the Swiss border.
In July, the Australian infantry suffers 5533 casualties in 24 hours at Fromelles and by the end of the year almost 40,000 Australians have been killed or wounded, mostly on the Somme.
The next year about 76,000 Australians become casualties on the Western Front, with more than 17,000 being killed in battles such as Bullecourt, Messines and the four-month campaign around Ypres, commonly known as Passchendaele.
Picture: Australians in Chateau Wood in Ypres (AWM E01220) | 1st Australian Division troops near Hooge. Both pictures, Frank Hurley, October 1917 (AWM E00833)

Sept 31 1917 | Beersheba

In the Middle East, Australian troops stage one of the last decisive cavalry charges in history at the Battle of Beersheba on October 31, 1917.
The casualties in this theatre are lighter than on the Western Front with 4062 Australians killed, wounded or missing in three years of warfare.
Picture: “Thunder of a light horse charge”. Most likely a re-enactment of the events at Beersheba, staged near Belah, 1918 (AWM P03723.001)

1918 | Victory

In April 1918 Australian troops are involved in a series of desperate defensive battles on the Somme, including Villers-Bretonneux, to contain a massive German offensive.
The following August the Australians spearhead an Allied advance back across the same ground. At Amiens, Mont St Quentin and the Hindenburg Line, Australian troops fight at the forefront of crucial victories as the Germans fall back.
In early October 1918 the Australian divisions withdraw from the front for rest and refitting and are preparing to return when Germany surrenders on November 11.
Picture: Lieutenant Downes addresses his Platoon from B Company, 29th Battalion, during a rest near the villages of Warfusee and Lamotte, August 1918 (AWM E02790)

1939 | World War II

Following Britain and France’s declaration of war against Germany on September 3, 1939, Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies announces Australia is also at war.
Almost a million Australians, men and women will serve in different theatres around the world – in Europe, in the Mediterranean, in Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. Nearly 40,000 Australians will be killed or die during the war.
Picture: Men of the 2/7th Battalion during a western desert patrol. Damien Parer, 1940 (AWM 007407)

1941 - 1942 | Tobruk

Up to 14,000 Australians, mainly from the 9th Division, hold out against repeated German attacks in the Libyan port of Tobruk. The siege lasts from April to December 1941. The men become famous as “The Rats of Tobruk”.
Later, the 9th Division plays an important role in the Allied victory at El Alamein in November 1942.
Picture: Australian troops move up to Tobruk's front line. George Silk, 1941 (AWM 009493/21) | ANZAC Gun crew fire their 25 pounder in the Western Desert of Libya, by George Silk 1941 (AWM 011315)

1942-1943 | Japanese threat

In February 1942 the fortress of Singapore falls to Japan and 15,000 Australians become prisoners-of-war.
The Australian mainland comes under direct attack for the first time, as Japan bombs Darwin and towns in the northwest and midget submarines enter Sydney Harbour.
The fear of a Japanese invasion eases after the Allies win a series of decisive battles in the Pacific including holding the enemy at Kokoda in New Guinea.
Picture: The Neptunia blows up during a Japanese attack on Darwin, February 1942 (AWM 042895) | Japanese submarine, Sydney Harbour. Ronald Keam, June 1942 (AWM 060696)

1944-1945 | Pacific fight

A renewed offensive stretching Bougainville to Borneo sees more Australian troops than ever before committed to fighting in the Pacific region.
The fighting continues until Japan surrenders in August 1945.
Picture: Landing craft carrying 2/9th Battalion troops approaches the beach at Balikpapan, Borneo. Jack Hawtin, July 1945 (AWM 132508)

1946-1951 | British Commonwealth Occupation Force

Australian troops arrive in Japan in February 1946 to join a mixed Commonwealth force to oversee Japanese demilitarisation and maintain the terms of the unconditional surrender.
At the peak of involvement about 16,000 Australians are responsible for more than 20 million Japanese citizens and 57,000 sq km of country.
Picture: Patrol searching for stores and weapons, Fukuyama, Japan. George Allan Cuthbert, September 1946 (AWM 132639)

1950-1953 | Korean War

Australian troops join an international UN force to restore the security of South Korea after an invasion by the communist North after the post-WWII division of the country erupts into war.
In 1951 men from the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR) fight two crucial battles at Kapyong in April and Maryang San in October, along with numerous other actions.
Australian casualties in the overall conflict eventually number more than 1500, with 339 dead.
Pictures: 3RAR members trying to stave off the cold of a Korean winter. Ian Robertson, Christmas Day 1950 (AWM P01813.471) | 3RAR on operations in a snow-covered valley, by Philip Hobson, February 1951 (AWM HOBJ2046)

1950-1963 | Malayan Emergency

A State of Emergency is declared in Malaya in 1948 after violence from guerrillas of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) draws support of many disaffected Malayan Chinese. The British authorities ask for Australian help. RAAF aircraft are sent in 1950, with troops following in 1955.
The Malayan Emergency forms the longest continuous military commitment in Australia's history with troops staying three years after the emergency is officially declared over.
During the period of aerial bombing and jungle patrolling 51 servicemen die – but only 15 in military operations - and 27 are wounded.
Picture: The colour party of the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR), at the victory parade in Kuala Lumpur. William Cunneen, August 1, 1960 (AWM CUN/60/0241/MC)

1963-1966 | Indonesian Confrontation

Australian troops take part in an undeclared war between Indonesia and Malaysia as part of a larger Commonwealth force under British command.
23 Australians are killed, seven of them on operations, and eight wounded before the two countries sign a peace treaty in August 1966.
Picture: Soldiers from 4RAR inspecting huts during a patrol along the Malaysian-Indonesian border, June 1966 (AWM FIL/66/0241/MC)

1962-1973 | Vietnam

The arrival of “The Team”, a group of Australian military advisers in South Vietnam in July and August 1962 marks the start of involvement in the Vietnam War.
The presence escalates, alongside that of the US, against the communist North with 50,000 Australians – including conscripts - eventually serving in the conflict.
Major engagements include the Battle of Long Tan in August 1966 and the Tet offensive in 1968.
The eventual casualties run to 520 dead and more than 3600 wounded.
Pictures: Members of 5 Platoon, B Company, 7th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (7RAR), await collection by US Army helicopters. Michael Coleridge, August 1967 (AWM EKN/67/0130/VN) | Guns and supplies lowered from a Chinook helicopter, December 1969 (AWM EKN/69/0144/VN) | An Australian adviser and a South Vietnamese captain question a village chief. John Fairley, July 1970 (AWM FAI/70/0590/VN)

1990-1991 | Gulf War

About 1800 Australian Defence personnel are deployed to the Gulf after Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait on August 6, 1990.
Australia serves under the UN, with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) providing ships to enforce trade sanctions.
After the war 75 Australians are sent to northern Iraq to assist the delivery of humanitarian aid to Kurds living in the UN-declared exclusion zone.
Picture: HMAS Darwin intercepts an Iraqi vessel suspected of flouting trade sanctions. Kym Degener, September 1990 (AWM P01575.006)

1999 | East Timor

An international peacekeeping force led by Australia intervenes to restore order after violence from pro-Indonesian militias erupts following the pro-independence vote.
The peacekeeping operation is still in force.
Picture: Australian soldiers handcuff four alleged militia in Dili. By David Dare Parker, September 1999 (AWM P04504.008) | An Australian soldier body searches an East Timorese man. David Dare Parker, September 1999 (AWM P04504.047)

2001 - 2008 | Afghanistan

After al-Qaeda’s September 11 terror attacks in the US, Australia provides military support to the US in its operations in Afghanistan, deploying about 150 SAS troops.
There have been four Australians killed in the ongoing conflict.
Picture: An Australian Bushmaster provides protection for an Australian C-130J in Southern Afghanistan, September 2006. Australian Department of Defence.

March 2003 | Invasion of Iraq

Australia joins the US and Britain in the “Coalition of the Willing” invading Iraq without UN authorisation on the premise Saddam Hussein’s regime is still concealing weapons of mass destruction and has links to al-Qaeda.
Australians work clearing mines in the Gulf with additional SAS troops on the frontline advancing to Baghdad.
1570 defence personnel are currently stationed in Iraq and the Middle East with forces scheduled to be drawn down in June 2008.
There have been two deaths in the ongoing operation.
Picture: Members of Australia’s Clearance Diving Team 3. David Dare Parker, April 2003 (AWM P04102.084)

June 2003 | Solomon Islands

The Australian-led multinational force, the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), arrives to restore peace and disarm ethnic militias.
About 140 troops remain deployed in the ongoing peacekeeping operation.
Picture: Australian soldiers secure the beachhead at Red Beach, on the first day of operations. Ben Bohane/degreesouth.com, July 2003 (AWM P04580.030)